The Big Lie That Will Not Die
When 11-year old Mohammed al-Dura was killed in a battle at a road junction near Gaza, Palestinian PR professionals (aided by international media) immediately seized the opportunity to portray him as a victim of the evil Israelis. The awful image of the little boy cringing behind his father was broadcast around the world, resulting in a huge propaganda victory for the Palestinians. Al-Dura is now a celebrated martyr in the Arab world—even though the Palestinian version of his death is a lie. Al-Dura was killed by bullets from Palestinian guns, as a German investigation conclusively proved three weeks after the incident.
Yasser Arafat and his KGB-trained PR machine continue to exploit the death of this little boy, as this illustration and poem on the website of the Islamic Association For Palestine shows.